Also known as
Achill Sound, The Ballina Lass, The Ballina Lasses, The Green Meadows, The Hag’s, In To The Room I Want You, Johnnie When I Die, Burry Me In Kerry, Johnny When I Die, Johnny When You Die, Johnny’s Gone To France, The Maids Of Galway, The Mayo Lassies, The Old Maid Of Galway, Paddy Gone To France, Paddy’s Gone To France, Traynor’s Rambles, The Turf House.

This one, and Michael Kennedy’s—she takes the same approach to both and they’re a lot of fun to play along with the cd on. Wouldn’t it be great to teach Liz’s Old Maid of Galway to your session mates and *make* it session friendly? Heh, at least if you and I both know it, and we ever end up in the same pub or coffee house, *we* can have a little session….

I’m also hearing her play measure 2 and 6 of the A part as |CDB,C DCDF|. Have to confess…I transcribed this based on listening to the track on Green Linnet’s web site, using an outdated Realplayer. So it’s a bit grainy. And Liz throws a few variations in….

The Old Maids of Galway

This is the more common setting of the tune Liz Carroll based her "Old Maid of Galway" on (posted yesterday). Liz’s version is so different, if that were all you knew, you’d probably end up solo with it at any session (‘cept perhaps in Chicago). In fact, you could go from the trad setting to Liz’s (from Bm to Gm), and most folks would think you were playing two completely different tunes.

The setting here works well either up tempo or as a slow reel. If you choose to slow it down, consider playing those scratch triplets as rolls. It’s also nice to slide into those quarter note E’s and B’s.

Johnnie When I Die, Burry Me In Kerry

While a student in pre-unification Berlin in the late 70s I used to play with an Irish/Austrian band and one of the lads used to sing the following line to the B part - "Paddy’s gone to France and he’s never coming back again" - or sometimes the A part as the fancy took him.